By Nanditha Sankar:
December 4 will ring in an important day for the national capital. Touted as one of the most vociferous elections this season, three major parties — the ruling Congress, the BJP and the rising newcomer Aam Aadmi Party are seen as the major players. The BJP’s CM Candidate is Dr. Harshvardhan, a man of impeccable stature as stated even by his opponents. He has donned the caps of the Law, Health and Education Ministries and won several accolades for his flagship Polio Eradication Programme, which went on to be adopted by the entire nation. Such is his stature that several of his opponents, including Arvind Kejriwal have been repeatedly saying that the BJP will use HarshVardhan like how the Congress uses Manmohan Singh to cover up for their misdeeds.
While the picture seems rosy from the outside, all’s not well with the BJP and their so-called idealist candidate. On analyzing the happenings around the election season in Delhi, here are some reasons I find for one to go against the BJP and Dr.Harshvardhan:
*The NaMo stamp – that the party is riding on a wave of Modi-ism, what with every one or the other campaign indirectly hinting at the anointment of the party’s new-face for the Prime Ministerial post, so much so that the local players have been relegated to the background. This could have a negative impact on the party with the anti-Modi wave turning tides against the BJP. Only time will tell if the Modi impact continue to chime or ebb away.
*Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair- After crying out loud when there was one ‘doubtful’ candidate in the AAP, the BJP has fielded the most no. of tainted candidates amongst the 3 parties. A whopping 31/68, a sure sign of disrepute.
*Infighting – That Vijay Goel has been the architect of the BJP’s Delhi unit is no hushed-up tale. However, from the moment that Dr. Harshvardhan was decided as the CM candidate, dirty linen began to be washed in public. Mr.Goel had even threatened to step down and was finally meted out the same treatment as LK Advani (in the Modi issue). And now, we hear that first-time voters have been distributed pamphlets exhorting them to vote for the party with no sign of the Dr. Harshvardhan on them.
*A clear case of Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V : The BJP seems to have followed the path of students resorting to Google for their assignments. Their much-delayed and debated manifesto was finally released only to be a clear-cut copy of the AAP manifesto. While the BJP claimed that the delay was because “they had to plan a lot”, the manifesto reveals shoddy planning. The issues addressed may be the same for the city faces the same problems but their plans to curb those issues, especially the contentious issues of power, water supply and corruption have the same redressal solutions as AAP. Whether this was a case of coincidence or “Excessive planning” is left to the readers to guess.
*Where were they all these years?
The BJP has proposed complete e-governance in Delhi. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi, which has been under the reins of the BJP for over 10 years, required the spending of an exorbitant sum of 12 crores for a poorly developed website.What could have been easily done at the hands of young IT experts went into a protracted sob-story. And the very same party has now hatched plans to take digitization to an all new level when they can’t even handle the grassroots stage?
Furthermore, the BJP, despite bringing some relief with their Health aspect of the manifesto, have failed to curb epidemics like dengue fever in Delhi. They say they will not investigate corruption charges against the current government (one can only wonder why such a camaraderie). The BJP must realize that they cannot get away with such pointless moves. One can only hope for a better show from them in the run-up to the D-day. While exit polls may be in favor of them despite predicting a hung assembly, only actual results will reveal what’s in store for the BJP.
Karan
This. As the movie Corporate pointed out… our public has a very short memory. They can only see the misdeeds of the congress and completely fail to see that BJP is so much worse. People around us are just blindly following the Modi wave and not looking beyond the face. Even if Modi’s intentions were for a greater cause, which I highly doubt, he cannot possibly uplift the party all alone.. which is in complete chaos and disorder, about their motives and their very own leadership. If this party comes to power, our democracy is going to be in grave danger. Even congress is not worth supporting anymore. Manmohan and team have had their chance, and not really delivered on most of the fronts. They somehow managed to deliver the CWG 2010, without major hassles , but that was only because their international reputation was on the line.
It is easy to criticize, than to do anything about it… and if public’s way of doing anything about it, or getting back at congress… is to vote for BJP… then we are in deep trouble.
Saurabh Gandhi
Here’s a look at what is happening in Gujarat while it’s CM is busy campaigning elsewhere: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/modi-on-the-move-gujarat-government-grounded/1200390/
ROBINHOOD
non-partisan??? Better the web admin take small pain to remove the word from this blog description!!!
partisan
ˈpÉ‘Ëtɪzan,ËŒpÉ‘Ëtɪˈzan/
1.a strong supporter of a party, cause, or person.
synonyms: supporter, follower, adherent, devotee, champion, backer, upholder, promoter, fanatic, fan, enthusiast, stalwart, zealot, disciple, votary; More
krish M Rao
for the past 15 years congress is ruling delhi with Mrs Sheila as it’s CM…… THE CLAIM BY CONGRESS that DELHI BECOME WORLD CLASS CITY is totally wrong.Only 20% of the people is enjoying their life in delhi.. 805 of the common people still struggling even forr DRINKING WATER and hygienic environment. Recent DENGUE EPIDEMIC is an authentic evidence….The international media tarnished the image of ANTI WOMEN attitude of delhi…. Anna Hazare’s fast last year for janlokpal has sent a negative impression on the governance india…For all this CONGRESS is totally responsible.BJP is also equally responsible since for the past 7 years BJP is ruling MCD in delhi which has it’s purview for distributing drinking water and the prevention of DENGUE in delhi…. DELHI WANTS A CHANGE… A GOOD CHANGE….LEAD BY A NEW FACE… DIFFERENT FROM THE MAAMOOLI POLITICIAN of delhi…
True_Indian
Absolutely biased and silly article.
For those who don’t know the agenda of BJP has been development alone, and they have done what they promised in states and even when they were in power in centre from 1998 – 04
. The DMRC was laid when Madan Lal Khurana was the CM! The first physical work was inaugurated in 2002 by Vajpayeeji. And several other initiatives.
And for any person with a little political observation skills, it is seen that the Congress in power in centre has always been targetting BJP ruled states which are in reality on the forefront of development and growth ( MP, Guj, Chattisgarh); and their attitude towards the opposition is no secret !!
About the MDC, the major source for a municipal corporation in india are property tax, entertainment tax and utility usage fees. However these are not enough alone. A large part of Municipal corporations income depends on grants from the state. And as one knows past 15 years has seen our honourable Sheila JI performing so beautifully in the favour of Delhi’s downfall ( Its time to give her a break). And it is pretty simple that what might have happened on the front between the state and the corporation.
One cannot deny the fact that the principal opposition in the party in India had done so well in office from 98-04, and that the UPA-1 rode only on the perfomance of it. WHile it failedf to keep up the perfomance of its own in the second regime. Most of the proposals SSA, RTI act, were done by vajpayeeji, And Cong removed the POTA act as soon as it came to power.
About Infighting, which party doesn’t have it? Even Cong had it in all legislative assembly states ( Scindia and Digvijaya in MP), (Cong and Jogi in CG). Important part is which party is able to do well in office in spite of all this. BJP clearly wins on that front.
To the author whoever has written it, i would strongly recommend you to think once again before writing such things up.
vikas
Upto the point and completely unbiased article
Nice research and solid arguments
Mehul Gala (@mahigala7)
No point digging into ‘Who said what’. No party is clean from the core. All of them had their history with the accusations of corruption scandals and misgovernance. Maybe it time to ‘Vote for Change’. Let’s vote for AAP because voting for Congress and BJP is too mainstream.
Aakash Chand
all bulshit fuck rather being wasting ur tym searching fr congress and BJP, better search some facts about kejriwal and his party and also the followers..